Skippa Wish List - things that need to be done to make World's Best PVR

Dacho · September 26, 2015, 05:17:17 PM

Ability to hide Moving recording... message and watch TV like on Toppy. Progress bar.
It is taking soooooo long to move file. 1hr25 SD 3Gb.

Windows formatted HD, Recordings to have meaningful names from EPG. I transfered this file and get a folder with meaningless name with .info, etc files all with meaningless names?

Dacho · September 26, 2015, 05:22:07 PM

Ability to unmount usb drive from media menu. Settings/Device INfo seems strange place.
Display disk name in media screen.

IanL-S · September 26, 2015, 05:43:23 PM

Quote from: Dacho on September 26, 2015, 05:22:07 PM
Ability to unmount usb drive from media menu. Settings/Device INfo seems strange place.
Display disk name in media screen.

A really excellent suggestion. This seems to be common practice for PVR firmwares to place the unmount USB device option.

Ian

SkippaBeat · September 27, 2015, 01:03:25 PM

A proper on/off switch, so we don't have to keep pulling the power cord out when it freezes ;)

IanL-S · September 27, 2015, 01:48:41 PM

Quote from: SkippaBeat on September 27, 2015, 01:03:25 PM
A proper on/off switch, so we don't have to keep pulling the power cord out when it freezes ;)

Given the price it is selling for it would not be an unreasonable expectation. It is a feature that is usually only found on "premium" models. In my somewhat limited experience:

Topfield TRF-2400/2460/2470/7170, TF7100HDPVRt Plus, TF-T6000, TRF-5300/5310/5320 have a power switch on the back.

Topfield TF7100HDPVR (not the Plus), TRF-7160, 7260, 2100, , TF-T6211, TRF-2200 do not have a power switch on the back (the last three also have power packs - but not as robust as those that ship with the SKIPPA).

Ian

IanL-S · September 27, 2015, 01:52:30 PM

It would be really great if it had a removable internal HDD like the TRF-2200. It would make the replacement of dead or injured HDD straight forward. Would reduce warranty costs as the unit would not need to returned to fix HDD issues.

Ian

IanL-S · September 28, 2015, 09:10:25 AM

The display on the front of the SKIPPA is recessed into the case, so you can only clearly see it when you a looking straight on.

My Skippa is on the bottom shelf of the cabinet and sitting or standing half the top of the display is not visible. Same when you are viewing from the side. Never seen this problem with other devices I have used. Serious design fault.

IIan

stretch4x4 · September 28, 2015, 09:17:29 AM

Agreed ours is down low too and I can't read it.
Also had to rotate it because our cabinet is 45 degrees to our couch and you flat out couldn't tell if it was recording or not from the couch!

IanL-S · September 28, 2015, 09:22:16 AM

At first I thought there was an error message being displayed as it did not resemble anything you would expect to see. It also makes the time 'illegible' when in sleep mode.

Ian

Likkie · September 28, 2015, 02:33:07 PM

The ability to re-order the channels in the EPG.

Likkie · September 28, 2015, 02:43:18 PM

The ability to turn off ad-skip (which is far too slow).

For one show its does take about the same amount of time as a original recording, but by the time you add in the default padding a 30 min show becomes a 60 min recording. so basically you can watch you ad-free show after about 2 hours. If you record 4 * 30 min shows in a row, the last one won't be ready for 8 or more hours.

I'd rather turn it off and save the power and heat.

Better yet, the ability to specify which shows to process at the time you set the recording. Far more useful.

Likkie · September 28, 2015, 02:48:24 PM

The ability to adjust the amount skipped, when you press left or right arrows, by a finer amount. i.e. by the second

The way beyonwiz does it in the P1 etc is great.

I like to skip forward by 30 sec but backward by 25 sec. The if I really only want to skip 5 sec I can quickly just go forward and back.

csutak40 · September 28, 2015, 06:44:40 PM

Quote from: Likkie on September 28, 2015, 02:48:24 PM
The ability to adjust the amount skipped, when you press left or right arrows, by a finer amount. i.e. by the second

The way beyonwiz does it in the P1 etc is great.

I like to skip forward by 30 sec but backward by 25 sec. The if I really only want to skip 5 sec I can quickly just go forward and back.

Which could be an addendum to #7 :P

drjacka · September 29, 2015, 09:47:36 PM

- The ability to prioritise series over other series. For example I has the Simpsons as a series but if all the tuners are busy and it wants to record top gear and top gear is a higher priority it should record top gear and not the Simpsons.

- The ability to reorder channels in the EPG

- The ability to have a show on one tuner using chase and one on another doing the same and switch between them and even pause one while watching the other

- If a show is being recorded and you change to that channel you should be able to rewind to the start point of the recording and not just the time you changed the channel.

These are all things TiVo (the very very old PVR) has done for years.

IanL-S · September 29, 2015, 10:28:57 PM

Some interesting ideas in the previous post.

The last two I suspect are incompatible with the Braodcom SoC; the design is that ehre is n + 1 recording slots, with the "+ 1" slot used for timeshift. With 3 tuners you would need n + 3 slots. As the SKIPPA only has 7 slots, you would onky be able to record 4 programs.

Ian